Banner Health officials say a security guard at one of its Phoenix hospitals was fired after being accused of having sex with a woman’s body in the morgue.
The incident reportedly occurred in October at the Banner University Medical Center near 12th Street and McDowell Road.
Police documents say the guard, 46-year-old Randall Bird, was seen inside a freezer behind the locked morgue doors on top of a gurney with a 79-year-old woman’s body. The woman had reportedly died of natural causes and her body bag had been unzipped, police say.
The other security personnel who spotted Bird say he “was acting very nervous,” and had his clothing undone.
The incident reportedly occurred in October at the Banner University Medical Center
Bird reportedly told officials that he had a medical episode and grabbed onto the body, which he inaccurately stated was “broken.” Bird then told police he could not remember what happened after the medical episode.
Injuries were found on the victim’s body and multiple samples of DNA evidence were collected, which matched Bird, documents say.
Bird was arrested and booked into jail on numerous counts of crimes against a dead person, all felony charges.
Police documents say Bird is on supervised release until a preliminary hearing next month.